Everyone seems to have a podcast nowadays. You might be one of those folks or you may be interested in starting one. Like any other digital product, you’re already considering whether it’ll be profitable or not. And, to be fair, that’s a great starting point.
If you asked me if making money with a podcast is possible, the answer would be an immediate yes. A more complicated question would be how many listeners you need to make your first few bucks from a podcast. That requires an entire article, and… well, here we are.
In this article, we’ll check out the most popular ways to make money with a podcast, go over how many listeners you’ll need to be profitable, and break down the best monetization methods according to your listener base.
But first, let’s get back to the main question.
How Many Listeners Do You Need to Start Earning Money From a Podcast?
I hate to break it to you this way, but there’s no set number of listeners that you’ll need to earn money from a podcast. Essentially, you can start earning from the first download, depending on your brand and experience with other digital media.
What I can say is that a loyal listener base of around 1k listeners is going to be enough to break even and start raking in some profits. 5k-10k listeners is a good range for attracting sponsors, and the 10k+ listener mark is when you can start making enough to go full-time.
Let's take a look at some specific milestones.
- The 1k listener mark is where you can start funneling them into different digital products you sell, like a membership or an eBook.
- 5k-10k is when sponsors and ads come into play, many of which pay out on a CPM (cost per mille:1000) basis of around $10-$50, depending on your niche.
- 10k+ is the point when the CPM gets closer to the $50 mark, and your audience is engaged and loyal, making it easier to funnel them to your membership or sell them your other digital products.
Again, this isn’t 100% going to be the case with you. It all comes down to your niche. The more obscure niches can bring in good profits early on, while more general ones (like, say, sports) won’t make you much, even in the 10k+ mark.
Regardless of your listener count, there are ways to make money with a podcast. Diversification plays a big role in this, as you use your podcast as a funnel to your other offerings. So, if your podcast goes bust, you’ve still secured some loyal followers for the rest of your digital products.
Let’s check out some of these monetization ideas.
10 Ways to Make Money With a Podcast
Here are the 10 most popular ways to make money with a podcast.
1. Try crowdfunding and donations
One of the best ways to make money with a podcast, regardless of your listener count, is through crowdfunding or donations. When you’re just starting, make sure to keep this subtle. Have a simple call to action at the end of the podcast saying, “If you want to support me, click on the link below to send me $1 or $2”.
As you gain more followers, you can get a bit more aggressive with it. So, for example, you can now have two instances within each episode where you direct listeners to your donation links.
Thankfully, you won’t have to worry about setting these links up or managing payments, as you can get Whop to help you out. Just create a simple donation link and get your listeners there.
2. Look for sponsors
As I said above, sponsorships are the best way to make a profit from a podcast once you have a good listener base. Finding sponsors can be difficult, yes. You’ll need to contact them, handle all the communications, and find companies with good products related to your podcast.
The great thing is that there are platforms out there that help you with this, managing all the deals for a small percentage. Speaking of these deals, they work similarly to ads in that you’ll get paid on a CPM basis. The more listeners you have, the higher your CPM will be. On average, this will be in the $15-$30 range, so for 5k downloads, that’s $75-$150.
3. Sell ad placements
Ads are an equally great monetization method, and they’re more or less the same as sponsorships. Sponsorships are generally more personal, prompting you to promote the brand, while ads are more about promoting products or services.
Securing ads is a bit more complicated than sponsorships, though. You’ll need to go up to the 10k+ listener mark to get some good CPMs, as most ad platforms that handle this require 10k listeners at least. You can then place ads at the start, middle, or end of the episode.
But this is where some good money starts coming in, and it’s essentially passive. You just have to create quality episodes to get your listeners to listen all the way through. And keep the ad placements natural. Say something like, “This section of the podcast is sponsored by X”.
4. Offer exclusive content
Now, we get into the more creative, indirect ways to earn from a podcast. Remember, your podcast is your personal brand, not just a digital product. So, you can funnel your listeners into your other products, like a private membership, that offers exclusive content.
Platforms like Whop can help you out with that. For example, if you want to share exclusive episodes with paying listeners, you can just upload them to your whop and put them behind a paywall.
As for what content you’ll choose, that’s totally up to you. Behind-the-scenes and exclusive episodes work great, as do paid products like show notes and ebooks. But the real money-maker is a paid VIP community.
5. Create a premium paid community
By creating a community around your podcast, you’ll be able to bring in the most loyal and engaged listeners to a more secure platform.
The key here is to make this community worth it. Even the most loyal listeners won’t join if you don’t offer them any value. So, besides offering the sense of community, add a few perks, like shoutouts, early access to new episodes, free merch, and that sort of stuff. With a platform like Whop you can create your own whop - which is your internet hub - and add all the features you need to make an excellent community, including a chat feature, forums, video calls, and even a giveaways app to give back to your community.
So, you’ve got some exclusive content and a community. How about you bunch these up into one big membership?
6. Start a podcast membership
Starting a podcast membership combines all your exclusive content and the paid community under one monthly fee. You can also use this as an entirely different podcast, where you’ll post more in-depth episodes and give early access to the regular ones, alongside all the other perks I mentioned above, like shoutouts and free merch.
The great thing is that you can host this membership right here on Whop. As mentioned previously, you can create your own whop add different apps to manage everything effortlessly.
So, use the Chat app as the community, post your exclusive podcasts with the Files app, and get paid with the help of Whop Payments for all of these. The best thing of all? It’ll only take you a couple of minutes to set up your whop.
7. Try affiliate marketing
On another note, there are some more passive ways to earn income with a podcast. One way is affiliate marketing.
You just have to get affiliated with companies to share your affiliate link with your listeners. And the best thing is that you can do that from your first listener without promoting your links. You can just say, “Hey, you can get the mics or cameras we use below” and have an Amazon Affiliate link.
8. Sell POD Merch
Another great idea is to go down the merch path. Now, will listeners want to wear or use your merch? The most loyal and engaged ones certainly will. So, you can start selling T-shirts, mugs, and all kinds of other print-on-demand products.
Merch can be pretty profitable, even if you don’t have too many sales. You just have to make sure that whatever you’re selling is of the best quality and not go for some cheap alternatives to maximize your margins. The higher the quality, the more likely your members are to buy these.
9. Offer podcast consulting services
A more indirect way to use your podcast to make money is by offering consulting services. Now, this does mean that you’ll need to have a somewhat successful podcast or be long enough in the game to know the ins and outs.
But you could also do this alongside your podcast once you hit the 10k listeners mark. Most can make a living by posting weekly episodes at that point, so you can help beginners get started. And, of course, you can do this directly through Whop.
10. Partner with other creators
While this might sound counterintuitive, you can always partner with other creators within your industry who use a different platform (ie, social media, YouTube, etc.). This is a pretty indirect way, as, essentially, when you partner with other creators, you’re both going to increase your followers/listeners. And more listeners means more money for you.
Think of it as a value-for-value deal. You both collab and increase your following, get more loyal listeners, earn more money, and, potentially, collab again on an entirely new podcast or other digital product.
What Monetization Method Should I Choose for My Podcast?
Now, I just went over some of the best podcast monetization methods, but I’ll be honest. Some of these work much better at a certain listener count. There’s no reason to focus on ads when you get 500 downloads per episode, as you won’t be able to secure a good deal. So, here are the methods that you should use, according to your monthly listeners.
Up to 1k listeners
When you’re just getting established as a podcaster, your main focus should be to make every episode better than the previous. You have to get loyal listeners who are engaged by your podcasts and come back to the next one every time.
So, ads and sponsorships are out of play, as these can seem scammy early on. Start off with donations and crowdfunding, maybe even some merch to go along with it. Affiliate marketing is also a good idea at this stage.
Up to 10k listeners
At this point, you’re most likely in the 5k+ mark but not quite up to 10k listeners. You can start considering sponsorships with companies in your industry. Find these through your own research or other podcasts, reach out to them, and try to secure some deals.
At this point, you can also double down on your merch, as it’s very likely you’ll have folks interested in repping your brand. And you can also start to dabble into creating a community and offering them exclusive content or ad-free versions of your podcasts.
10k+ listeners
Once you surpass 10k listeners every month, there’s no bad method to take. You can still keep on doing what you’ve done up to this point, and it’ll make you enough money to sustain the podcast and earn some profits for your time.
To really capitalize on this following, partner programs are one option you can try out, as they’ll find you the best sponsorships and save you quite a lot of time. This is also the best point to double (even triple) down on your community and start to funnel your listeners to it.
Exclusive content, weekly or monthly calls, behind-the-scenes clips, all of this will entice your listeners to hop on.
Monetize Your Podcast With Whop
The fact of the matter is that nobody can really say exactly how many listeners you’ll need to make money on a podcast. It all depends on your niche, your personal branding, and, honestly, quite a bit of luck. That said, I get that you don’t want to leave this up to chance.
So, how can you monetize your podcast from the very first listener? The best answer I can give is through donations and later building a community. There’s no better platform to help you with this than Whop.
When you build your whop, you can immediately start hosting your podcast, whether paid or free, for all your listeners. To keep everything organized, you can also host all your other digital products, like memberships, courses, etc, by using one of the many apps on your whop. And, when it comes to getting paid, Whop Payments is the final piece of the puzzle.
So, are you ready to monetize your podcast with Whop? Simply create your account, build your whop, choose your apps, and start sharing it across your social media, all within a few minutes.
FAQs for Making Money with Podcasts
How much does Spotify pay podcasters?
Spotify splits ad revenue with podcasters 50-50. Ad revenues are measured in RPM (revenue per 1000 impressions) and are estimated to be anywhere from $5-$30. So, a podcast with 1000 listeners who all listen to a pre-roll ad, with an RPM of $20, would earn $10.
How much does Apple pay for podcast listens?
Apple Music podcasters are 100% of the generated ad revenue and 70% of podcast subscription revenue (or 85% for listeners who have been subscribers for 12 months in total).
How can I grow my podcast?
The best way to grow your podcast is through social media. You can create clips from your episodes and share them across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also partner with other creators to gain visibility from new audiences.
How big does a podcast have to be to make money?
For a podcast to make some good money, you’ll need to have at least 10,000 monthly listeners. At that point, you can go for ads or sponsorships and earn some good money or start selling other products, like memberships and merch, to gain even more profits.
